Chapter 195: Corpse Jelly Under the Mushrooms
The crowd fell silent like cicadas in winter. Dai Wenqian seemed satisfied with the situation he had created and tossed the dagger back to his companion.
"Just stopping them is enough, why kill someone?" Gu Yu couldn't help but say when he walked over to her.
"This is the simplest and most efficient method," Dai Wenqian said. "A few people running off is a small matter, but should we let the remaining hundred-plus bear the risk they bring?"
Although his approach could effectively control the situation, Gu Yu still found it emotionally difficult to accept. She glanced at the person lying on the ground and turned her head away in distress.
Someone covered his face with clothes.
Dai Wenqian's attitude caused subtle changes in the expressions of the players traveling with him. The remaining players scattered in twos and threes to rest, while the other ordinary people directly threatened appeared somewhat dejected under the double fear.
The rich little girl dared not cry out loud, leaning against the tall woman and wiping her tears continuously. Kang Hong sat beside them, no longer as calm as before, looking somewhat anxious.
"Need help?" the flower-selling girl asked, seeing that Xu Huo had been organizing the tape. She took the initiative to say, "If you have any ideas, you can tell us. Da Zhi and I can help. Three people are always better than one."
"We can help too!" the tall woman quickly added.
Kang Hong and the several young adults around him also expressed that they were available if needed.
Xu Huo asked for a few phones, wrapped them with tape as before, seemingly planning to put them into the elevator.
"Will this method work? Someone was just killed a moment ago," the flower-selling girl said.
"What's your name?" Xu Huo looked up at her.
"Jiang Yihua," the flower-selling girl said. Seeing that he only nodded and continued working, she felt somewhat stifled.
After finishing with the phones, Xu Huo took the Crimson Sword and the Bull Shield and walked to the elevator.
At this time, Gu Yu came over. "I'll help too."
Xu Huo nodded. "I'll block the gap, you lower the phones and pull them to the side."
The outer door of the elevator had a gap of a few millimeters. The phones couldn't be directly inserted, but passing through a few layers of tape was no problem.
Xu Huo chose four elevators to place the phones, including the one Brother Tie had opened earlier and the one where the player had just been killed. However, no accident occurred while placing the phones, which indirectly confirmed that the xenomorph was not only active inside the elevators.
"The elevator shaft is pitch black. What can it capture?" Zheng Liang said sarcastically from the side. "Wasn't it already tried just now?"
"Not necessarily. If we put phones in every elevator, whichever one opens its door midway, even the slightest movement will be recorded," Dai Wenqian interjected. "But this method is a bit clumsy. All fifteen elevators are connected to the floors. It wouldn't be strange for the xenomorph to appear in any elevator shaft."
In other words, even if you knew a xenomorph was in a certain elevator a minute ago, the next minute it could enter another elevator shaft through the floors.
Gu Yu, who had originally had confidence in Xu Huo, found this reasoning somewhat reasonable and couldn't help but look at Xu Huo.
"There's no need to find the xenomorph's hiding place. Just confirm it's not in a certain elevator shaft," Xu Huo said.
Another suffocating six hours passed.
Outside, the sky had brightened, but it was still hazy. Nothing could be seen through the windows.
When it was time to board the elevator, Xu Huo took a spider from his pocket and stuck it next to the elevator, then placed a phone before going down to the eleventh floor.
"Why is it empty?" Jiang Yihua had mentally prepared herself, but when the elevator doors opened, the entire eleventh floor was a pure white space. In the enclosed room, the ceiling and floor were spotless.
The moment he stepped out, Xu Huo frowned. He instinctively leaned toward the wall but stepped into empty space, his calf sinking into the floor.
"What is this?" The person coming out behind pushed the front person out of the elevator, and one after another, they stepped into the "white floor." When they lifted their legs, their pants were covered in white filaments.
These white filaments looked somewhat like ordinary spider silk, but they couldn't be broken when lifting the foot. They had a strong stickiness like maltose. Someone couldn't help grabbing a handful, and in the end, their hands were also covered.
"It's not spiders again, is it!"
"There seems to be something underneath," Zheng Liang said, laying clothes on the ground to step on, then bending down to look at the hole he had just made. "It's dark, about the size of a fist, looks a bit like mushrooms."
Xu Huo, who had used the strings to suspend himself in midair, also saw the plants beneath the floor made of white silk. Their appearance indeed resembled mushrooms. Under the umbrella caps grew white filaments, connected piece by piece, forming a hard crust-like white barrier on top of the mushroom cluster.
"Can these mushrooms be eaten?" Kang Hong couldn't help asking. "Judging by their appearance, they should be non-toxic, right?"
"You dare to eat something from here?" the tall woman looked at him in shock.
Kang Hong, however, said, "There are quite a few plants planted in this building, but not all of them are poisonous. Didn't we see that on the thirteenth floor just now?"
"Some plants are grown purely for medicine. It's not impossible that the mushrooms could be edible."
"We don't have much food on hand, and our consumption is high. If the mushrooms can be eaten, wouldn't that alleviate the food problem for the next two or three days?"
"He has a point." Xu Huo took over the conversation and glanced at Gu Yu and the others ahead. "Does any of you have a method to check for toxins?"
Gu Yu immediately looked at Wei Bin.
Wei Bin used a knife to pick out a mushroom. Surprisingly, as soon as the mushroom was cut, the white filaments attached to it automatically broke off, falling back to the ground and retracting toward the hole.
Watching the filaments contract like long white worms, Wei Bin's face momentarily turned ugly, but he still put the mushroom under his nose and sniffed it vigorously, then tore off a bit to taste. After a moment, he hesitantly said, "It's not toxic..."
"If it's not toxic, that's great!" Brother Tie was impatient. Before he could finish speaking, he took out a long knife, turned it horizontally, and cut out a piece of mushroom.
The white floor immediately retreated to the side, leaving a black patch that looked like a collapsed hole in the floor.
Brother Tie jumped in. With every step, a "squelch" sound came from under his feet. He lifted his foot and found that beneath the mushrooms was a layer of something like jelly, with the mushroom roots on top.
"What is this? Looks a bit disgusting."
On this side, Jiang Yihua and Da Zhi also picked quite a few mushrooms, revealing large areas of murky jelly-like substance underneath.
Jiang Yihua wanted to cut it open to see, but Xu Huo stopped her. "Forget it. After seeing it, I'm afraid you won't be able to eat the mushrooms."
Jiang Yihua followed his gaze and saw several black filaments at the edge where the white silk had retreated. She suddenly understood and threw the mushrooms in her hand. "There are corpses underneath!"
The people who were trying to pick mushrooms shifted their shocked gazes from her to Wei Bin.